Oskelaneo Canoe Brigade With
the arrival of the National Transcontinental Railway (later CN) in 1910 it
was cheaper to use the rail than to ship goods to and from Hudson Bay. In
1911, the Hudson's Bay Company began supplying the Mistassini post (later
Mistissini) by canoe brigade from the new station at Oskelaneo. Furs
however did continue going down the Rupert to Rupert's House until 1925.
In 1926, the HBC constructed a post at Oskelaneo, which doubled as the
supply depot for the brigades. The last brigade run to Mistassini used the
route in 1948.

The route itself was
never limited to brigades for Mistassini. There were also brigades
supplying the posts at Obiduan and Chibougamau.

Oskelaneo Canoe "Highway" Cree
families traveled the route to buy supplies at the cheaper stores in the
south. Copper had been discovered at Chibougamau about 1903 and
prospectors, who had been coming up from Lake St. Jean took advantage of
the new route. The route was also used to supply Obiduan Post and by the
Attikamek aboriginal people of the area. A
few recreational canoeists also passed through on their way to Lake
Mistassini, Rupert River or Waswanipi River. The route became so popular
that manually-operated locks were constructed on the Oskelaneo River
between the rail station and Bureau Lake (later Gouin Reservoir) — see
photo below.

Temagami Camp Expeditions Camp Keewaydin in Temagami was always seeking to
extend its own exploration. It ran an annual trip down a river to Hudson
Bay or James Bay. The construction of the National Transcontinental meant
it could travel farther north and east. In 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939
and 1940 it used the route to travel either to the Waswanipi River or the
Rupert River. It also used the route in 1964 and 1966 to reach the Rupert
River. Camp Wabun, another youth camp in Temagami,
did it in 1963 and 1965 and Camp Temagami
paddled the route
in 1966. In 1967, Keewaydin began using the new road to Lake
Mistassini.

One of the
manually-operated locks on the Oskelaneo River. When this shot was taken
in 1966 by a Camp Temagami trip, the locks were badly deteriorating and
almost non-functional.

Photo: Jon Berger

Decline
Once the road arrived in Chibougamau in or about 1948, prospectors stopped
paddling and the HBC too, adopted the road. Traffic fell off quickly. Only
the route between Oskelaneo and Gouin stayed in use supplying natives at
Obiduan and hunting and fishing camps. Motorboats took over from canoes,
logging roads crept around Gouin, and eventually the locks were abandoned
and the HBC closed its Oskelaneo store in 1962.

Sources:
Canoeing North into the Unknown by Bruce Hodgins & Gwyneth
Hoyle, Carl Williams, Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Jon Berger, Keewaydin
Archives, Peter Leney, The History of the Chibougamau Crees by
Jacques Frenette, The Keewaydin Way by Brian Back, The Rupert
That Was by Heb Evans